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View Full Version : Give Us a Multi-Setting-Capable Character!



StoryKeeper
2010-06-04, 11:42 PM
Yeah, couldn't think of a catchier thread title. Anywho, I vaguely remember having a thread like this long ago that I thoroughly enjoyed. The idea is to explain a character concept and then show how it might be used in various settings. It can be a PC, NPC, or anything in between. I'll start.

FATHER/MOTHER OF MONSTERS:
This character, whatever its gender(s), has a strong affinity for the creation of fantastic beasts fair or foul. This character's main goal may or may not be strongly tied toward breeding such creatures, but they certainly don't mind making them along the way. Whatever the case, this character probably feels a strong parental instinct towards its offspring, and might come to dislike those who harm them.

FANTASY SETTING:
In a fantasy setting, this character could be a god or nearly god-like entity that is responsible for the creation of numerous monsters such as manticores or otyughs. Even some gods might trace their lineage back to this character. The character might give birth only to foul monsters to be slain, and thus be seen as an evil being by the PC's, or it might create benevolent creatures as well making a more neutral force of fertility.

On a smaller scale, a character might simply be a ranger, druid, or arcanist who is knowledgable about husbandry. They might travel the world seeking strange beasts they might be able to breed with other creatures in their collection or they might seek powerful magic items that allow them to fuse existing creatures together (a psionic item using something like the psionic fusion power might work for a DnD game.)

SCI-FI:
A character in an age of space travel might be an organic being capable of manipulating the genetics of any creature it encounters or captures. It might enjoy playing around with possible combinations of DNA to make superior creatures or more interesting creatures. Maybe it just wants to make something like itself. Its goals might be as simple as finding more creatures to make more combinations of DNA with and/or feed its other children or it might have more complex goals. Either way, it's a monstrosity of evolution or a science experiment gone wrong.

HORROR:
In a horror game, the character might be something akin to the traditional zombie-maker or vampire sire. He's the mad scientist, the lonely monster, the freakish thing that's transforming the townsfolk. It's out to make other monsters and it may or may not be able to change them to suit its needs. Want to know where the Boomer came from in Left 4 Dead? This character decided to play around with the zombie recipe to help catch those pesky survivers.

Now it's your turn, guys. Give us a character and show us how it might work in various settings. The goal here is to give others some inspiration for their ideas and maybe get a few ideas added to your own concept.

RelentlessImp
2010-06-05, 12:10 AM
SAGE GREYBEARD:
Very learned on almost every subject you'd ever care to know, the Sage is that one person who will always, always be able to tell you what your next goal is - even if it's only tied to the plot in a tertiary manner while giving you more information than you really need. The Sage likes to talk. A lot. And is often the cause of rampant character suicide.

FANTASY:
This is almost always an ancient, powerful wizard, usually an elf, lich, or other nigh-immortal race. Their centuries of experience have given them ample opportunity to study all manner of subjects - including subjects you really don't want to know about. They also usually have some manner of predicting the future - through divinations, visions, or an ancient prophecy on a moth-eaten scroll recovered from ruins of a now-defunct civilization.

And if you're lucky, the prophecy even involves you.

SCI-FI:
In a sci-fi setting, the Sage Greybeard usually isn't a greybeard at all - or even a grognard! It's typically some punk kid with a genius-level IQ who spends too much time surfing the (internet/matrix/information superhighway/et al), studying, playing chess, and generally just being an all-around knowitall. Typically, they also have scholarships to MIT, but can't hold down a job because there's too much information in their head.

Can occasionally be mildly schizophrenic due to having so much going on in their minds. Rarely, they're also psions/telepaths/psykers, and their information is actually gleaned from people's minds. They can take apart any tech and put it back together, or have "just the right tool" to decode that nifty little bit of info. Regardless of how they do it, if you're at a loss, these guys can tell you exactly what you should be doing at any given moment in time, even from a little bit of information.

HORROR:
This is the guy who's survived it all. Zombie apocalypse, Lovecraftian terrors, racial-inspired riots, the most recent ten or twelve regime changes, and so on. He's a bit addled and typically talks over your head, but his advice is always sound because he's been through the exact same thing, only with less advice than you're getting - and you'll be the exact same way should you survive to the next horror that toddles around the corner, too old to continue the good fight but willing to dispense what you know to the younger people so they have a chance to live to be a ripe old age of thirty-seven - just like them.

Bonus!
JAPANESE RPG:
This is the guy that's 27 years old. He's been in twenty-seven wars and is a grizzled veteran, but is now retired to a comfortable life. He doesn't fight anymore, but he's willing to teach these 15-16 year old kids what he knows. At least til those bastards come and mess up his comfortable life. That's when he puts all that knowledge and battle-training to use, jumps in on the line with the youngins, and confounds the enemy with his sound strategies and brutal combat techniques.

And you thought he was too old to fight.